Descartes

The philosopher of the week that we are discussing about in class is Descartes. Descartes was the “Father of modern philosophy”. He is a French dude and also a mathematician. I think that’s pretty cool, except that so far his thoughts and reasoning are confusing. It’s actually intriguing but I’m kind of waiting for Dr. McAteer to break down the book for us, because I’m not sure if I’m understanding correctly.  I agree with his approach to understanding philosophy by applying math and science because when it is explained in that aspect I feel that it is clearer for people to understand that way. So Descartes is saying that we have to go all the way back to the beginning, back to Plato. He actually wants us to forget everything we know.  Descartes tells us, "I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last" (pg.12) Ugh!! This rollercoaster never ends. It feels like after I have taken a step, I get taken back two steps. I was actually getting comfortable with Aquinas. Although I agree with some of what Plato thought. I actually agree somewhat with every philosopher we have learned about. As a philosopher, it is up to me to figure out what’s the truth. Ok let’s go let’s go let’s go!! Getting back to Descartes, he said that  we need to use our reason to correct our senses; that our mind is more reliable than senses because the "senses deceive you" (pg.12).  Funny story is that about an hour or so after philosophy class my friend texted me commenting on a picture I had sent. My friend told me that I look “darker” in that picture and asked if I had gotten a tan. I laughed because it reminded me of lecture. The setting in the picture was of me standing at the car wash as the sun was setting. So I had to explain to my friend that in the picture my body is blocking the sunrays in a particular spot and that is casting shadows on my body and making my skin look darker. I jokingly told them to take a philosophy class to correct their senses because their sense and mind is playing tricks on them.  The picture looks so awesome that it actually does look like I had a tan or something and not shadows. Hmm, maybe my senses are tricking me?? Descartes wants us to pretend that an evil demon is deceiving us, because that’s a way to break the habit of using your senses. I don’t know about this one. It’s too hard to do because I feel that I am not crazy and nothing is deceiving me. God is guiding me so how am I deceived? So I guess I’ll give it a try. So according to Descartes I have to pretend that the demon made my mind crazy so I should doubt my mind and reasoning. So I’m not doing an assignment for philosophy, I might be actually doing an assignment for my chemistry class. I’m not in this philosophy class and this assignment is made up. Dr. McAteer is steering me wrong, he is not teaching philosophy, he is teaching us how to make homemade ice cream and that is actually our assignment. Good deal! I’d rather be making and eating ice cream right now. So why am I typing on my laptop? Or is this even a laptop? Twilight zone! Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo! See how crazy this sounds. But hmmm maybe he has a point; it really makes you think or wonder…